My good friend Gil Maningo is holding a one-man show entitled, “Caricatura” from July 10 to 24 at the SM Art Center, SM City Cebu.
The exhibition, which will be unveiled tomorrow at 6:30 p.m., will feature 77 of Gil’s many caricatures, many of which appeared here in Cebu Daily News.
These precious artworks are in two sizes: 24 x 36 and 34 x 36 inches. I wish to invite everyone to view them.
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Despite threats from a senator desperate to curry favor with the teeming mass of uninformed voters in a dismal attempt at getting a run for the vice presidency next year, the offering of Grade 11 is poised to debut right after a new president will have been elected in the Philippines next year.
After years of seeming confusion about how Grade 11 in 2016 and Grade 12 in 2017 will look like, the Department of Education has finally released four tracks that the entering student can choose from, while taking required core subjects.
These two grades, lumped together under the label “Senior High School”, will have a core curriculum with subjects to be spread between the two grade levels.
This core has seven learning areas, namely: Languages, Literature, Communication, Mathematics, Philosophy, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences. This core contains 17 subjects that every student must enroll in.
While taking the core subjects, each student is provided choices of what future career paths they want to pursue.
To do this, DepEd has determined three tracks, namely: Academic, Technical-Vocational-Livelihood and Sports and Arts.
The Academic track is composed of three strands, namely: Business, Accountancy and Management (BAM); Humanities, Education, Social Sciences (HESS); and, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). In between these strands are elective subjects that the student can choose from if he or she wishes and deems these important for future careers.
Both the BAM and HESS tracks have nine subjects each while the STEM track has eight.
It is understood that those taking any of these tracks intend to pursue higher education.
Those in BAM can enter into college business degrees while those under the STEM track will obviously pursue engineering degrees in college and beyond.
Meanwhile, those in the non-academic tracks, enrolling in either Sports or Arts tracks have ten and seven subjects respectively, with the latter required to undergo apprenticeship in either media arts and visual arts, literary arts, dance, music, and theater.
It is in the Tech-Voc-Livelihood track that the student has numerous sub-tracks to choose from, namely: agri-fishery arts; home economics; information and communications technology; and industrial arts.
Each of these sub-tracks have subjects for students clearly intending not to pursue college education at the most immediate and find jobs or carry out livelihood activities right after graduation. It is here that one will find subjects like carpentry, masonry, plumbing, hairdressing, caregiving, and housekeeping, among many other choices. The most important feature of this track is that the student is given a nationally recognized certification or NC.
Thus, instead of the student leaving fourth year (or Grade 10) in the old curriculum unprepared for blue-collar work, the new educational reform includes these options for immediate job placement. In the past, high school graduates unable to pay for college tuition had to invest in training in these subjects through the Technological Education and Skills Development Authority or TESDA or languish in a world without money and a job.
So whoever says that the country is not ready for Grades 11 and 12 has no idea of what he or she is talking about.
With the new educational reforms, everyone in high school now has the options that are necessary for being productive citizens in this country.
It is not a question of whether we are ready or not. Rather, the question is whether politicians can see through their narrow vested interests and help prepare the infrastructure to make this country match the educational preparation of the youth with the jobs and higher education careers that are waiting for them.
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